August 16, 2004
Dunn Field (Capacity: 4,020)
Elmira, NY
Elmira Pioneers vs Brockton Rox
Final Score: 7 – 2
* The ballpark was revisited on July 25, 2025
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When I first visited Elmira, I thought “what a charming place nestled amongst rolling hills”. The small city does indeed have nice surroundings as the Chemung River is at the center of the valley that contains Elmira. But when I returned in 2025, my perceived charm (fabricated or not) was gone as I walked downtown and encountered meth-heads and other questionable characters. Elmira’s population is 32,000 and that’s down a good 12% in the last 20 years. The general feel is depressing and the reputation is not good. Professional sports has mostly failed in the city, but they still have historic Dunn Field and the Pioneers. For over a century, teams of differing leagues and affiliations were successful in Elmira as they won 9 championships and was home to many future major-league stars. Minor league baseball ended its run in the city when an NYPL franchise was moved to Lowell in 1995. Independent league baseball followed until 2006 as Elmira went down another rung to Summer Collegiate Ball. This is the best place for them now as they play many other New York teams that have a similar history and older ballpark. Dunn Field is indeed older as it opened in 1938. There is a lot of character to this neighborhood park and while it is in desperate need of TLC, the game atmosphere and history almost make up for it.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
I mentioned downtown wasn’t a desirable place to wander, but it is also worth noting that Elmira has a couple museums. One is for area history and the other is devoted to soaring as nearby Harris Hill was a popular and historic site for motorless flight. The overlook is a scenic spot and especially cool if aircraft are taking off. Back down in the valley, Dunn Field is a true neighborhood stadium. It’s about 5 minutes from downtown on the south side of the Chemung River and to get there, you’ll pass plenty of houses while driving down Luce Street. At the end of the residential area, it opens to a grass field and then eventually the stadium. It is a unique setting, especially when you see people walking or riding a bike from their house to the game.
Location Ranking: 4.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
The main highway for reaching Elmira is I-86, a four-lane road that runs along the Southern Tier. This connects with other state interstates as well. Exit 56 easily provides access into the city and before reaching downtown, the Madison Ave Bridge leads into the neighborhood that includes Dunn Field. Parking is troublesome because the grassy area in front of the stadium is used for cars to park in random, made-up rows. The paved loop around this infield adds to the chaotic arrangement. While I got there early enough to figure out quickly who I should park next to in the random rows, I feared that I could get blocked in if I made a wrong move. That fear may sound like an exaggeration, but just look at the second row in the picture below. Also, if there’s a big crowd, you are likely headed to the neighborhood for street parking.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 4 out of 8
Exterior
Dunn Field has a proper intro for a historical stadium thanks to a brown brick entranceway. With openings for a stadium entrance gate and a ticket window, it feels like something I should see for a ballpark built in the 1930s. The words “Dunn Field” and “Memorial Stadium” are written on the front in silver letters. The rest of the structure makes up 80% of the remaining visual and that part is bleh as it features outer workings of the stadium skeleton with support beams and railings.
Exterior Ranking: 5.5 out of 10
Concourse
Right in front of the main entrance is the lone concession stand in the stadium and that creates an awkward jam between people arriving and people waiting in line. To the right, additional protrusions make navigating difficult as the walkway becomes narrower where the bathrooms are located. Things are more open down the third base side, but there’s not much in the area as loose stone makes up the ground. The entirety of the concourse is underneath the steps of the seating bowl. Red and blue paint does give the area a little life and there’s a nice assortment of wall decorations.
Concourse Ranking: 2 out of 5
Food
There is a grill at Dunn Field and they’ll make enough things on there to qualify as a dinner: Burgers, Chicken, Sausage, Hot Dogs, Pulled Pork. It’s pretty basic, but at least there are choices. Pizza is from Papa John’s. One big surprise is no beer! This is the first sporting venue that I’ve been to in a long time that does not serve alcohol. They had it in the past and I could not find out what changed.
Food Ranking: 3 out of 8
Interior
The historic grandstand goes around home plate and I always enjoy seeing these old-style seating structures. A walkway near ground-level separates four rows of “box seats” (regular red chairs with waitress service) from the rest of the stadium. A large blue roof covers much of seating, however support beams that hold up the roof can get in the way of your field view, so choose your seat wisely. Other features that diminish the view a bit: 1) The bowl has a gentle curve, leading to sections down the line being further away, 2) There’s lots of foul territory, 3) Each row does not have much more height than the next one. The most notable thing from a comfort stand point are the actual seats. There’s only a handful of plastic bucket ones. The rest are original(?) fold-down blue chairs that are hard, uncomfortable and small/squished to the next row. Even worse is that most of the upper seats were replaced with long 2×4’s. Dunn Field has really deteriorated since I was last here and it’s sad to see the condition. Further illustrating that is the horrendous playing surface. It’s not just dead grass as the field is uneven throughout, making for terrible hops with any ground ball. The outfield consists of standard billboards acting as the wall. The best view comes from the third base side as tree-covered hills are pretty close by. The Chemung River also flows nearby and it can be seen at the end of Section A. Dunn Field isn’t aging well, but I’m glad it’s still hosting baseball and fans continue to come out as the team is popular locally.
Interior Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Scoreboard
The scoreboard in right field is as basic as it gets. There’s a box score at the bottom and the rest of it is surrounded by ads. A central video screen hasn’t worked for decades and in its place is a banner with the team logo. At least the lights are working for the game information.
Scoreboard Ranking: 1 out of 4
Displays
Impossible to miss in front of the stadium, everybody walks by the bust of Edward Joseph Dunn as they head into the stadium. Dunn provided the land to the city and ended up with his name on the building and a statue out front, which is placed on a tall vertical stand. I do like what they did with the concourse walls as championship banners are proudly displayed. There are also numerous framed pictures that provide a fascinating look at baseball in this stadium and city.
Displays Ranking: 3.5 out of 6
Cost
Parking is free and tickets are still cheap at just $5 – $10. The seats closest to the field are $15. Concessions aren’t expensive either with a Burger $6, Hot Dog $4 and Soda $3.50.
Cost Ranking: 8 out of 8
Fan Support
What a surprising turnaround as the Pioneers drew terribly during their times in the independent Northeast/Northern League. Since their move to summer-collegiate ball (where they only play a few months out of the year) Elmira has had relatively solid attendance. They lead the league and are also Top 15 nationwide. That’s not just because they play in a bigger ballpark, fans actually do show up and many nights will feature a crowd that fills at least half the stadium up. For the game I saw in 2025, it was the season finale and it came on a very warm Friday Night. The place wasn’t packed, but there were 1,000 to 1,500 on hand.
Fan Support Ranking: 4.5 out of 8
Atmosphere
I find that summer collegiate teams are much more into the game than at minor league ballparks. That is definitely the case in Elmira and they started right out of the gate with a “Let’s Go Pios” chant. Despite their starting pitcher giving up 5 runs and not even making it out of the first inning, the crowd gave him lengthy applause in show of support. Understanding these are still college kids, that was great to see. When something good happens for the Pioneers, the noise in the stadium is quite loud as the roof helps to amplify the volume. Cheering was great for runs and that is enhanced by a few folks that had cowbells. This atmosphere was nowhere near what I saw in 2004 and it’s a rare example of a town increasing support for the local team.
Atmosphere Ranking: 11 out of 14
Other Stuff
Don Zimmer was married at Home Plate before a game in Elmira in 1951. There’s a great picture of the event in the concourse and I regret not snapping a photo of it myself…..This current Dunn Field is actually the second one by that name. The original burned down and the new ballpark retained the title…..The press box is located on top of the roof and it is not visible to those in the stadium……When I make a return visit, I usually only talk about the details of the first game seen at the stadium. I have to mention the 2025 game that I saw here in Elmira as it took 4 hours and 17 minutes for 9 innings! Errors on that terrible field surface had a little to do with it, but a game of that length at this level is insanity. We couldn’t stay for the whole thing as my 6 year old was with me and we still had a 2-hour drive to Rochester and I didn’t want her getting there too late. Thank goodness we left when we did and I didn’t feel compelled to stick it out.
Game (initial visit)
Chris Zallie pitched wonderfully for the Pioneers, as he gave up only two hits through five innings. Zallie had a shutout going before giving up a two-run homer in the 6th inning. That did not impact the final result as Elmira’s four run first inning held up and the Pioneers won the first game of the doubleheader, 7-2.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
